Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit a few days ago to his command in southern Ukraine offered a new potential indication of the heavy casualties suffered by the invading forces, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said in its latest assessment.

The ministry in London, in its assessment based on British intelligence reports, referred to a press release issued by the Kremlin on Tuesday about the visit allegedly made by Putin, noting that it described the trip as a trip to the Dnipro Group. Forces”.

British military analysts note that this is one of the first Russian references to the existence of the “Dnipro Force Group” (GFN), with the military command in Moscow using the term “force group” in a very specific way to refer to a large operational formation organized to carry out combat operations tasks

At the start of the invasion launched by Putin, Russian forces were organized into force groups that corresponded to the military districts they belonged to in Russia, such as Force Groups West or Center.

The parallel between the losses of the Russians now and the Germans in the Second World War

“The existence of the Dnipro group of forces indicates that the initial organization of the forces evolved, probably due to heavy losses. The mission of the GFN is likely to be to protect the southern sector of the occupied zone, and especially the southwestern flank, which is currently limited by the Dnipro River,” concludes the British assessment of the war in Ukraine.

Interestingly, a similar situation occurred during the Second World War with the German army during the invasion of Russia, which was initially organized into three large groups of forces: North, Center and South. After crushing defeats with heavy casualties, beginning in the winter of 1942 and especially in 1943, some Wehrmacht groups began to rename themselves after the local front on which they fought.

In the final stages of the war, some corps of the German army began to be named even after the names of the commanders who led them, for example, “Steiner’s Army Detachment”, which was tasked with breaking through the encirclement of Berlin in the last days of the war. conflict.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, as well as military officials in Kyiv, have repeatedly justified their refusal to order the withdrawal from Bakhmut, the epicenter of fighting in Ukraine for months, by the fact that Russian forces are suffering huge losses compared to Ukrainian ones. the battle is here.

What did the Kremlin say about Putin’s visit to the occupied Ukrainian territories

In its statement regarding the surprise visit of the Russian president to its frontline command, the Kremlin said that he attended a meeting of the military command in the Kherson region in southern Ukraine and received reports from the commanders of the Air Force and the Dnipro Armed Group (Dnipro), as well as other senior officers who would inform him about the situation on this part of the front, as well as in the neighboring Zaporizhzhya region.

Putin announced the annexation of these regions to Russia on September 30 last year, claiming Moscow for their entire territory, not just the territory controlled by the Russian army.

Russian troops withdrew from Kherson, the regional capital, last November, consolidating their positions on the opposite bank of the Dnipro River after troops on the east bank were materially cut off by repeated Ukrainian airstrikes.HIMARS.

Putin also reportedly visited National Guard headquarters in eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk region, another part of Ukraine annexed by Moscow last year. At first, the Kremlin did not specify when exactly the visit of the Russian president to these regions would take place, but later replied that it would be on Monday afternoon.

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